KTM announced a few weeks ago that it had failed to reach an agreement for the renewal of Fabiano Sterlacchini, who it had taken in 2021 from Ducati, where he had had a long career as Gigi Dall’Igna’s right-hand man. “The distance from his home, which is quite far from here (Austria, ed.) was an element to take into consideration, but I don’t want to use it as the main excuse,” Pir Beirer commented when the news broke last month. “We couldn’t agree on some things to continue, so we’re going our separate ways,” the KTM sports director continued.
A month after Sterlacchini’s exit was confirmed, Motorsport.com has learned that the technician is negotiating with Honda to move to the HRC structure. His arrival, in any case, will not take place before November, when his contract with KTM will end. In any case, this is not the only alternative that the Italian technician has on the table, torn between remaining tied to the championship or focusing on a system outside the World Championship.
Ken Kawauchi, Technical Manager Suzuki MotoGP
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Sterlacchini’s hiring would mark a before and after for the Japanese brand: this would in fact be an unequivocal signal of the will to open up to the new trend in MotoGP, which involves following the line and working method of European manufacturers. In fact, last year the HRC top brass had contacts with Gigi Dall’Igna to try to take the engineer who changed the status quo of the World Championship and who represents the fundamental piece of Ducati’s domination in recent years.
The last significant arrival of HRC, net of the top management and the riders, was that of Ken Kawauchi, recruited by Suzuki after the Hamamatsu manufacturer had made official the closure of the MotoGP team. If we take into account the drift of Honda this year, also from what the riders Joan Mir and Luca Marini declare, it does not seem that the entrance of Kawauchi on the scene has borne the hoped-for results.
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